New California Law Prevents Mobile Home Parks From Towing Vehicles Required for Work

The state Capitol in Sacramento on March 13, 2024. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for National Urban League)

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation July 2 that prevents mobile home park management from removing homeowners’ vehicles required for work.

Previously, mobile home management could, after giving notice and allowing seven days, remove any vehicle from a homeowner’s driveway or designated space if it violated park rules. Senate Bill 1408 prevents such removal for vehicles needed for a resident’s job, except in emergencies or if the vehicle extends into the roadway or poses a risk to residents.

Democrat Sen. Richard Roth of Riverside, the bill’s author, said it was necessary because it addressed an “influx of working-class families into mobile home parks” in California, according to the Senate committee analysis.

He said mobile home parks were once seen as “housing mostly for retired seniors” but argued that current housing prices for single-income families were driving younger residents to purchase more affordable options in mobile home parks.

And those younger residents often have work vehicles.

“Regulations concerning what type of vehicles can be parked in mobile home parks oftentimes do not take into account the needs of working-class people and are not standard from park to park,” Mr. Roth said.

He said some mobile home parks have prohibited parking vehicles with visible work tools, commercial vehicles, or non-passenger vehicles.

“This has interfered with residents’ employment and has sometimes resulted in residents having their vehicles, that were moved to outside the park, broken into and their tools stolen,” the analysis read.

According to the Mobile Home Park Home Owners Allegiance, there are over 5,000 mobile home parks with more than 450,000 housing spaces in California.

The bill passed the Senate this year with no formal opposition. It was heard in the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development June 10, and passed in the Assembly 67-0 on June 20.